A time to reflect - Don’t leave the world’s poor behind

THE breath-taking climax to the US space shuttle Discovery’s first flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003 has answered many of the questions left hanging over the future of NASA.

But far below Eileen Collins, the Irish-American commander of a vehicle at the cutting edge of human progress, harrowing scenes of famine, destitution and abject poverty were unfolding in Niger and neighbouring countries.

As the world watched nervously and then rightly applauded Discovery’s safe landing on its return to Earth, the dramatic events of recent days threw into stark relief the moral dilemma posed by the expenditure of billions of dollars on such projects when millions of people are mired in poverty on the planet.

This is not to gainsay the importance of investment in science and the search for knowledge as man seeks to push out the frontiers of space exploration.

Nor can there be any doubt that major benefits flow from a space programme which has contributed significantly to the advancement of humanity.

However, it is also undeniable in a world beset by contradictions that while some countries bask in enormous wealth, many others are ravaged by famine.

Against this backdrop, it is timely to reflect on the priorities of world governments. The tragic scenes witnessed in Niger underline the need for the G8 nations to deliver on their commitments at the summit in Gleneagles to waive the crippling debts owed by struggling Third World countries.

Without devaluing the importance of the US space programme, it is fair to suggest the drama surrounding Discovery has put a renewed and uncomfortable perspective on the fight against global poverty.

Vast sums of money are being spent on the space programmes of NASA, Europe and Russia.

Even greater amounts are being poured into the global armaments race.

Admittedly, the wealthy nations also contribute billions towards the relief of poverty. The US alone, for example, gave $4.3 billion to Africa last year and pledged to double it by 2010.

In a real sense, the Discovery drama illustrates the contradictions of the human condition. As the shuttle knifed through space, tens of thousands of people in the desert villages of Niger were starving and had been desperately short of food for several months.

The very weakest were faint from hunger and reeling under the searing heat. In harrowing scenes of malnutrition, the children are worst affected.

If these scenes are not be echoed again and again, it is imperative that powerful nations achieve a greater sense of justice in the allocation of funding on a global basis.

There is an onus not alone on the wealthy members of the elite G8 club, but also on smaller countries like Ireland, to deliver on their commitments to eradicate global poverty.

Aid must not go to brutal dictatorships who ruthlessly prey on their own people but must be channelled through non-governmental agencies such as GOAL and Concern.

The harrowing irony of the scenario now unfolding in Niger is that aid workers warned it would happen a year ago. The tragedy is that people were starving even as G8 leaders were signing up to the debt relief programme in Gleneagles.

Clearly, as suggested by GOAL’s John O’Shea, an emergency UN fund for world-wide relief action should now be given serious consideration.

It is a sad indictment of mankind in the 21st century that we can have astronauts repairing shuttles in space but we cannot eradicate famine in some of the poorest nations on earth.